Fast Food Murders: A look back at Tennessee’s serial killer investigation, nearly 3 decades later

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Nearly three decades ago, the so-called “Fast Food Murders” shook the communities of Hermitage, Donelson, and Clarksville. Seven lives were taken, families were devastated, and the entire region was left on edge.

February 1997, a lone gunman executed two Donelson Captain D’s employees. The bodies of 16-year-old Sarah Jackson and 25-year-old Steve Hampton were discovered in the restaurant’s cooler.

“It’s a robbery-homicide where you have two victims and the bad guy comes in and kills two people, and puts them in the cooler that is very unusual, you really don’t have that type of crime happen on a regular basis,” said Former Metro Homicide Detective, Pat Postiglione.

A month later, another horrific crime scene. This time at the McDonald’s in Hermitage where three people were shot to death: Andrea Brown (17), Ronald Santiago (27), and Robert Sewell Jr. (23). A fourth employee, Jose Gonzalez was stabbed 17 times but miraculously survived.

A month after that, a lone gunman kidnapped two young women from the Baskin-Robbins in Clarksville. The bodies of 16-year-old Michelle Mace and 21-year-old Angela Holmes were found in Dunbar Cave State Park.

Seven brutal murders in 67 days.

In 1997, Postiglione was the lead Metro Homicide detective working the Captain D’s killings. Mike Breedlove was a TBI agent assigned to the Baskin-Robbins double killing.

“We knew we had a serial murderer or a murderer on the loose who was going into fast food places,” the now-retired TBI agent, Breedlove, told News 2.

The investigation intensified, evidence was developed, every lead was chased, and finally, a mass murderer was brought to justice.

Who is Paul Dennis Reid?

If you were a Nashville resident in 1997, the name Paul Dennis Reid will send shivers up your spine.

The Texas ex-con came to Nashville reportedly to find fame and fortune as a country singer. Instead, he would murder seven people in three fast food robberies over the course of only 67 days.

June 1997, a smiling and waving Reid attempted to kidnap his former Shoney’s manager, Mitch Roberts.

“He wanted me to put the handcuffs on and he was going to handcuff me in the car,” said Roberts.

But the crime was thwarted, and Reid was arrested.

Then on June 25, standing beside the law enforcement officers who worked night and day to find him, Reid faced the bright lights of the media for the first time in night court.

“I did not commit any heinous crime. I did not commit any murder,” Reid said in that courtroom.

The following days were filled with investigators sharing information and crime scene units scouring every inch of Reid’s East Nashville home.

“The physical evidence, the forensic evidence was so crucial. Paul Dennis Reid learned about crime scenes and committing crimes while in prison in Texas. But he didn’t understand that there is microscopic evidence that he left behind and that is what we looked for,” said Breedlove.

Reid was convicted and sentenced to die for all seven murders, but the killer would never be executed. On November 1, 2013, he died of natural causes in prison—11 days before his 56th birthday.

The cause of death was complications due to pneumonia, heart failure, and upper respiratory issues.

Reid died having always maintained he was innocent.

To this day, the law officers say they have maintained relationships with the families of the victims and, in the case of Postiglione, he still communicates with the lone survivor Jose Gonzalez who now has a family and lives in Atlanta.

There was another restaurant murder before the Captain D’s murders in January 1997. It happened at the Shoney’s on Dickerson Road where the night manager Charles Thoet Jr. was shot and killed. That crime has never been solved.

Postiglione said he is sure Reid is responsible, there was just never evidence to link him to this 8th killing.

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